Archive for the 'African-Americans' Category

March is Women’s History Month and NavyTV thought it would be appropriate to reintroduce the Navy’s top four Sailors in 2010 — the first time all four awardees were women! Meet HMC Ingrid J. Cortez, OSC Samira McBride, HMC Shalanda L. Brewer, and CTC Cassandra L. Foote, as they talk about their pride in their work and their responsibility to their Sailors here on NavyTV. In July, 2010, the Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead presided over the pinning ceremony for the four Sailors of the Year, the first year all four awardees were women.

Navigating the Seven Seas

Father and son Vice Adm. and Master Chief Melvin Williams speak at a Navy Memorial “Authors on Deck” event about their memoir Navigating The Seven Seas: Leadership Lessons of the First African-American Father and Son to Serve at the Top of the Navy. In this lecture, they outline their seven “C”s of leadership: Character, Competence, Courage, Commitment, Caring, Communicating and Community, and tell their personal stories about overcoming racial barriers in the Navy over the course of 60 years of consecutive service. See their presentation on NAVY TV

John Lawson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 16 June 1837. In 1864, he was a member of USS Hartford‘s crew. During the Battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864, while serving as a member of the ship’s berth deck ammunition party, he was seriously wounded but remained at his post and continued to supply Hartford‘s guns. For his heroism in this action, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. John Lawson died on 3 May 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is buried at Mount Peace Cemetery, Camden, New Jersey.

An August Morning with Farragut

William Heyshand Overend

1883

Medal of Honor citation of Landsman John Lawson (as printed in the official publication “Medal of Honor, 1861-1949, The Navy”, pages 34-35):

“On board the flagship U.S.S. Hartford during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864. Wounded in the leg and thrown violently against the side of the ship when an enemy shell killed or wounded the six-man crew at the shell whip on the berth deck, LAWSON, upon regaining his composure, promptly returned to his station and, although urged to go below for treatment, steadfastly continued his duties throughout the remainder of the action.”

For more information on the African American experience in the United States Navy, go to THIS LINK.

Watch the story of the legendary Pea Island Life Savers, an all-black lifesaving crew that accomplished one of the most daring rescues in the annals of the Life Saving Service in 1896, saving the entire crew of the three-masted schooner E.S. Newman, for which they were posthumously awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal by the Coast Guard. See it here on NavyTV.

Robert Blake was born into slavery in Virginia. After escaping, he enlisted in the US Navy from Port Royal, Virginia and served on USS Marblehead during the Civil War. While off Legareville, Stono River, South Carolina, on 25 December 1863, Blake bravely served the rifle gun as Marblehead engaged Confederates on John’s Island. The enemy eventually abandoned its position leaving munitions behind. For his bravery in this action, Blake was awarded the Medal of Honor.

LCDR Richard W. Meade, commanding the Marblehead, wrote in a report to Rear Admiral John Dahlgren off Legareville commending several individual sailors in the conflict. Among the four who would eventually win the Medal of Honor was Robert Blake. LCDR Meade had this to say in his report about Blake:

“Robert Blake, a contraband, excited my admiration by the cool and brave maner in which he served the rifle gun.” (Meade to Dahlgren, ORN, 15:190-191)

Richard W. Meade

He ends his report to Dahlgren by commending everybody, including Blake, onboard the Marblehead during the tense engagement:

“I have again to commend the good conduct of everyone on board. Their courage was so well displayed that the enemy, who had doubtless counted on disabling us, were forced to retire [. . .] in confusion and ignominy.” (Meade to Dahlgren, ORN, 15:191)

“Navy admits Negroes into the WAVES:” so read the headlines following the Navy Department’s October 19, 1944, press release announcing this change.

This was indeed good news to the civic, religious, and civil rights organizations, the Afro-American sororities, Mary McLeod Bethune and others who had urged the Navy to have an integrated female reserve program since its inception. Captain Mildred McAfee, the director of the WAVES program, also advocated for their inclusion. The White House received petitions and numerous letters from whites and blacks a like arguing that not allowing blacks in the WAVES was discriminatory and inconsistent with America’s democratic values. Thomas Dewey, President Roosevelt’s Republican opponent in the 1944 election, also supported their cause. He asked the audience during a speech in a Chicago suburb why they wanted to vote for President Roosevelt when his administration had excluded blacks from the WAVES. Within weeks, the Navy announced its intention to have black WAVES.

Harriet Ida Pickens, the daughter of William Pickens who was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Frances Elizabeth Wills, a social worker were sworn into the Navy on November 13, 1944, and entered the last class of officer candidates to be trained at Smith College, Northampton, NTS in Massachusetts. Pickens’ father encouraged her to apply. Wills read the announcement in a newspaper. Having no brothers to serve, she decided to do her part for the war effort. Like those who volunteered before them, they left their jobs and lifestyles to submit to naval rules and regulations 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for the duration of the war plus six months. Moreover, they entered the Navy knowing its record of institutional racism against blacks. They became the Navy’s first black female officers on December 21, 1944. The Navy assigned both to the WAVES enlisted naval training station at Hunter College in Bronx, New York. Pickens taught physical fitness training and Wills administered classification tests. By the war’s end 2 black officers and 70 black enlisted served among the Navy’s 90,000 WAVES. Four blacks joined the Navy Nurse Corps and the Coast Guard’s female reserves. The Marine Corps remained all-white until 1949.

Pickens, Wills and the other black women in the sea services may not have fully appreciated the historical significance of their participation or seen the struggle for their inclusion as an important chapter in the civil rights movement during World War II. The fight to integrate the WAVES is a reminder that change is sometimes possible during an election year and a war that otherwise would not happen. Moreover, persistent agitation for change keeps the issue alive and emphasizes the activists’ determination to succeed. The diversity of the advocates committed to this cause and the various methods used strengthened their message and carried it to the right halls within the White House, the War Department, the Navy Department, and the Congress. Support from McAfee and other significant persons within the Navy and the endorsement of their cause by Dewey proved critical to effecting this policy change.

Flying over Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War in an RF-8 Crusader, Ben Cloud never pondered his status as an officer of African American and Native American descent. His main concern was getting good photos of the Ho Chi Minh trail, and surviving the antiaircraft fire he received on every mission.

Cloud came from a middle class family from San Diego, Calif., and entered the Naval Aviation Cadet program at the onset of the Korean War. He later was selected to fly one of the hottest planes of the period, the F9F Panther.

By 1971 his career was on a tear. After commanding a squadron and graduating near the top of his Naval War College class, he was deep selected to become the Executive Officer of the carrier Kitty Hawk.

On the night of 12 October 1972, the ship was steaming off the coast of North Vietnam, launching air strikes designed to put pressure on the North Vietnamese to end the war. Several black Sailors, disenchanted with their jobs and with the outcomes of several recent captain’s mast cases, assaulted white Sailors. These attackers were soon joined by peers, and Kitty Hawk had a full-blown riot on its hands.

Rather than send in Marines with firearms, the ship’s captain allowed Cdr. Cloud to try and negotiate. In the mold of a reconnaissance pilot, Cloud went to the fantail “alone, unarmed, and unafraid,” and confronted a hostile group of Sailors. Through sheer force of personality he convinced them to surrender the makeshift weapons they were carrying and end the riot. While 60 men had been injured in the affair, it could have been much worse. Kitty Hawk launched strikes just hours later despite having just suffered one of the worst riots in naval history.